The invention relates to a refrigerated case for highly-perishable food products, particularly meats. This type of case includes a display surface provided with a circulating current of cooled air. The air current is guided forward, via a circulation channel, across the display surface from the rear side of the case and back to the rear side, where it exits through an exit opening of the circulation channel that extends essentially over the case width and above the rear edge of the display surface.
A case of this type is known from, for example, G 83 16 262.3. In this case, a fan that sucks the air from the customer side of the case and blows it into the space surrounding the display surface via an exit opening on the service side is disposed in the floor space below the display surface. To filter airborne particles, etc., out of the circulating air, a hygienic filter is disposed in a downward-leading fall shaft on the customer side of the display surface. Despite this filter, microorganisms such as bacteria, fungus spores and the like inevitably collect and proliferate in the floor space, which constitutes a portion of the circulation channel, as well as in the remainder of the circulation channel. These microorganisms can then reach the display surface, unfiltered, with the air current. The fact that case devices, specifically a vaporizer and a fan, which are easily contaminated and are thus breeding grounds for microorganisms, are disposed in the floor space in the known case--a relatively inaccessible location--further promotes the proliferation of microorganisms in the floor space.